Insult to injury

By Matt Walker

A SINGLE act of rape may be more than twice as likely to make a woman
pregnant as a single act of consensual sex.

That statistic will reopen the hotly contested debate over whether rape can
be a successful reproductive strategy in evolutionary terms. It could help to
explain why men raping women has been so common throughout history and across
cultures, two American researchers told the conference.

Previous studies found that rates of pregnancy resulting from rape could be
anything up to 30 per cent, compared to a 2 to 4 per cent chance of getting …

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